Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller

3/24/2014

The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

A strangely broad-headed Clint Eastwood on the poster for Don Siegel's The Beguiled

QUICK REVIEW:

The Yankie-soldier McBurney gets rescued half-dead into safety by a 12 year-old girl to the girls' school that she attends. Here he convalesces slowly and constitutes an attraction and danger for the members of the opposite sex ...
The plot is a 100 % solid and is at the same time spellbound by a wonderful literary quality; it is an adaptation of the Southern Gothic novel A Painted Devil (1966) by Thomas P. Cullinan. The end of the film offers more than one surprise.

Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino (2008)) bites the apple as a world champion charlatan for the first 2/3 of Beguiled. In the last third, the suspense really takes off, and particularly Geraldine Page (Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)), who plays headmistress Martha, does outstandingly.
Great American director Don Siegel (Escape From Alcatraz (1979)) has said that Beguiled has themes of sex, violence and vengeance, and that it is based on "the basic desire of women to castrate men." - This makes for an exciting movie!

Eastwood has talked very interestingly of his character in Beguiled and the characters he plays in general:

"Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino play losers very well. But my audience like to be in there vicariously with a winner. That isn't always popular with critics. My characters have sensitivity and vulnerabilities, but they're still winners. I don't pretend to understand losers. When I read a script about a loser I think of people in life who are losers and they seem to want it that way. It's a compulsive philosophy with them. Winners tell themselves, I'm as bright as the next person. I can do it. Nothing can stop me."

Geraldine Page and Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel's The Beguiled

The film was shot mostly on location near Baton Rouge, Florida. Unfortunately, Universal had difficulties marketing it, and, in consequence, it suffered a very undeserving flop, although it was hailed in France.
The Beguiled is an utter joy of a film with ripe performances, vivid imagery and juicy themes and meanings.

Related reviews:

Clint Eastwood: Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business!
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho

Watch the trailer here, which seems strangely dated and old hat. - The film is anything but

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Less than 1 mil. $ (US only)
= Flop

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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